My laugh snorted out. “No,” I breathed. “Do tell.”
“I’m sorry.” He cupped my face with his big warm hands. “I know better now. I can see why you’re in so much pain. I wish I could feel what I saw, but it’s like looking at images in a book. I can see them, but they’re on the surface, not sinking beneath my skin. I’m not sure if I’m describing this right.”
“I understand.” The tiny bit of hope that had risen when he held my face sunk back into the gloom inside me. We were stretching our arms out across the cavern again, and we still couldn’t touch.
He leaned toward me and closed his eyes, breathing me in. “I feel as if I know you, yet I don’t. As if we’ve been apart for so long, we don’t know how to find each other again.” His eyes opened. “But no matter what, I know that I want you. That you’re a part of my soul I’ve searched for all my life, that without you, I’m nothing. No matter where you travel, I will find you. In this world and every other beyond, Tempest.”
“In this world and every other beyond, Vexxion,” I vowed. “No matter where you go, I’ll follow. No, I’ll stand by your side as your shield. My weapons, my magic, and my heart are yours.”
“We’ll find each other again. I’m determined.” He gave me the sweetest smile before he kissed me, his touch uncertain at first, as if he thought I’d pull back and scorn him.
I never could. He was my breath, my heart, and my soul all wrapped up in one.
I would chase after him no matter where he went because I couldn’t bear the thought of a life without him. I’d rather stand beside him as a friend than have nothing.
As he continued to kiss me, my moan coiled up my throat. I clung to his shoulders. Fear of our uncertain future fled. I was going to live in this moment.
He urged me down to the cushions, bracing his palms on either side of my shoulders, pining me with the delicious weight of his body.
He tasted like the berries we’d had for dessert. I wanted him more than anything, and in this moment, I’d sacrifice everything as long as I could feel his loving touch one more time.
With a growl, he deepened his kiss, his tongue demanding entrance to my mouth. I gave way, clinging and whimpering beneath him, taking all he had to give and demanding more. He was everything I needed, the only person I’d ever crave.
His knee wedged between my legs, driving them apart, and his hands were everywhere, stroking down my sides before moving to my breast, squeezing my nipple through the thick fabric.
A blink and I wore nothing.
He lifted his head, and his gaze sought mine. Was he asking for permission to do more?
I held his face. “I need you.” So much. Always.
“I’m yours.”
His kiss was bittersweet, but I brushed aside everything but the feel of him touching me with infinite care. I ran my fingersthrough his hair while he kissed down the column of my neck to my breast. When he sucked on my nipple, it felt new and the same. He was my Vexxion, but he wasn’t, but all that didn’t matter. As long as he didn’t pull away and turn cold on me, I’d deal with the aftermath of what we were doing later.
We were stepping off the edge of an abyss, but I couldn’t pull myself back. I wanted it all even if in the morning, I’d wake with regrets. I’d coast along in this moment where I could pretend he was mine again. Let the fates deal with me later.
His fingers trailed across my belly and slid between my thighs. I was wet for him already. I was always wet for Vexxion. One look or one kiss was all it would ever take. There had been a time when I would’ve cursed myself for allowing anyone to mean this much to me, but I’d fallen hard and fast for this man, and there was no turning back. I was his, and he was mine, even if he didn’t know it. I never wanted to drag myself back to the person I was before I met him.
Climbing up over me, he kissed me hard, as if he’d die if he didn’t have one last taste of me. Our tongues swirled together, and I wove my fingers into his hair, tugging gently. I would bind him to me physically because I was having a hard time holding onto the hope that he’d ever love me again.
I’d never get enough of this man, of his taste and the thrill of his body, heavy on mine. His growl rumbled through his chest, and he lifted his head, watching me with eyes as dark a blue as a turbulent sea. He pumped his fingers deep inside me before swirling them, tugging them back out to drag them across my clit.
He gave me a smile much like the man he used to be, theone who saw my flaws and still loved me. It broke my heart. He kissed down across my chest and belly. Pushing my thighs wider, he crawled between them. His smile of pure joy shattered my heart all over again.
Then his mouth was on me, his tongue driving inside me while his fingers rolled my clit. It felt good, nearly painful, and my cry jerked out, echoing in the room.
“From the moment I woke and saw you this morning, this has been all I could think about,” he snarled against my overheated flesh. He flicked his tongue across my clit. “Seeing you spread out for me like this. Knowing I’m driving you out of your mind with pleasure.” He looked up, his gaze locking on mine. “No matter what, you belong to me. You know it, and the feeling’s locked inside my soul. No one else is going to touch you.”
So far gone . . . So close. I could only nod.
“Good girl.” He dragged his tongue from my clit to my entrance and stabbed it inside.
Lightning burst within me. I was going to come so hard I’d scream. The entire world would hear.
His mouth stole every thought from my mind except of him. The push of his tongue and his fingers inside me. The way he stroked my clit. The way his threads teased my nipples to hard buds. I’d gone feral, bucking up to him, whimpering, and yanking on his hair.
Come for me,Tempest, he growled in my mind.
